


Magpie Prince

by Blue_Sparkle



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Magpies, Nori's father was a Maiar in this au, Nwalin Week, Pre-Relationship, half deity Nori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 21:13:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10975443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Sparkle/pseuds/Blue_Sparkle
Summary: In an attempt to find Nori's hideout, Dwalin finds more than he bargained for, including a flock of birds, and the truth about Nori's non-Dwarf heritage





	Magpie Prince

Floating through unfamiliar tunnels with his eyes fixed onto the ground as if his head had frozen, Dwalin wondered for the umpteenth time how he’d gotten there. His mind seemed to be cradled in fog, a strange shimmering mist that made it hard to think and move and even remember anything at all.

He had found the thief’s hideout, he’d been sure of it. Dwalin had worked hard trying to chase that Dwarf down, knowing that Nori was more of a nuisance than a danger to the order of the settlements Dwalin had any say in as a guard. But even a nuisance could grow and grow until it would be daft to do nothing.

How could the guards expect their skills to be trusted in if that one petty thief always escaped, always danced just out of reach with elusiveness or frustratingly little proof for crimes Dwalin _knew_ he had committed. If one like Nori could toy with the guard like this, then one might just conclude that more serious crimes could go unpunished too.

Dwalin had searched, and worked, and asked around, and kept his eyes and ears open for any detail that might help him, and he was certain that he’d pinpointed where Nori kept his little den where he hid his loot or himself when necessary. It was close enough to the town to be reached quickly, but far enough and up a precarious path that it would be hard to follow him. The mountainside in that area was steep and full of loose little rocks and paths that were hard to cross for a Dwarf as tall and heavy as Dwalin. Perfect for a lithe little thing like Nori.

The image of Nori skipping along on light feet where Dwalin struggled had helped keep him motivated whenever he had gotten annoyed during his half walk half climb, until finally he’d reached the entrance to the cave he’d searched for. There was a little stream running past, and trees provided shade. Dwalin had thought that he would probably be able to find a way down or up to proper paths that was easier to walk along than the one he’d used before.

He had taken one step towards the entrance, hearing the wind picking up, hearing rustling in the branches behind him and bird chirps growing louder than before. Then the fog had taken hold of him and he wasn’t sure what happened next.

Dwalin couldn’t focus on much as he moved through the tunnel. It was hard to tell what direction he was going, and somehow he wasn’t sure whether he was actually levitating or walking out of his own power under someone’s control. Strangely enough he didn’t feel any fear, or even anger at the situation. All feelings were dulled like they’d been wrapped in blankets.

Attempts to focus on his surroundings were quite futile, as Dwalin’s dulled senses could barely take note of anything besides the most obvious things around him. There was no light and the only sound he heard was the chirps and squawks of birds that probably shouldn’t be heard this deep in the mountain.

After some time passed the shiny fog before Dwalin’s inner eye was slowly replaced by a flickering golden glow. It took his slowed down mind a few moments to realize that he was truly seeing this now, and that he was coming closer and closer to the source of candlelight.

Only a little while later Dwalin got the impression of having entered a wider area than the tunnels and golden glow on uneven rock filled his entire vision. Then, finally, Dwalin felt his body regain its feeling and he felt himself shift until he was kneeling on a smoother part of the stone ground. His head raised towards the source of the light, and as his eyes still adjusted to the brightness he noticed a figure perched on a rock above him.

The Dwarf before him raised their arm, and with a light flick of their wrist the spell was gone.

Dwalin’s vision returned at once, and he moved to sit up straight without feeling any resistance. Immediately the figure before him became clear, focusing into Nori, sitting cross legged on a few cushions on the rock, wrapped in a shawl, smiling down at Dwalin as if he had just received a visitor rather than a guard stumbling into his secret hideout.

“You-“ Dwalin hissed, fully intending to rise to his feet and grab the nuisance before him by his collar to shake him and demand to know what was going on.

But something halted his movements. It wasn’t a spell this time, he was sure. There was something about Nori though, something radiating from him that made Dwalin settle back and remain on his knees, watching the thief to try and figure out what it was.

“Gotta apologize for all of that,” Nori said with a crooked smirk and waved around. “I didn’t feel like guests today and these little jerks here decided to bring you along for me to kick out without any surprises when you dropped by unexpectedly.”

Dwalin frowned and looked around. The caverns was the size of a small room, but there was nobody there besides Nori and himself. There were birds though, several of them sitting in nooks and on protruding rocks. There were a dozen or so, and even one would have been an odd sight inside a mountain. All of them looked as if they were watching the scene before them, and a few sat on the cushions around Nori, unafraid of the Dwarf. They weren’t speaking but the scene reminded Dwalin of the Ravens of Erebor, always gathering near the King and his own father or other members of the family and speaking quietly to give advice. Magpies were the lesser siblings of Durin’s Ravens, but Dwalin had never heard of them acting the same way.

He finally looked up at Nori again, now seeing the source of the light as well. Candles had been stuck to the sheer rock, wax dripping down in long lines, and each lit to emit a near unnaturally strong and pure light. Nori sat in front of that wall, completely draped in the golden glow. For a moment Dwalin wondered if that effect had been what had made him hesitate about grabbing him in anger before, but there was something else about him. A glow that seemed to be present but not connected to the candles, a glow that had a silver shimmer about it and didn’t look like any candlelight Dwalin had seen before.

“Jerks?” he asked instead of any of the questions burning on his tongue.

Nori shrugged and reached over to rub one of the magpie’s heads affectionately.

“These. My flock, my friends, my accomplices or whatever else you wanna call them. But they’re little jerks by nature, so that’s what I’m calling them.”

Dwalin watched the bird squawk at the little display of affection, and then raised his brows.

“These aren’t normal birds. Did you train them to help you with your crimes?”

At that Nori sighed and returned his attention to Dwalin.

“Oh no, they do their own thing unless I ask them for something, and I don’t really need help for what I do, do I? Besides, there’s no need for training if I can just ask for what I want nicely and they already like me by nature, right?”

Nori paused for a moment.

“I don’t even have to ask them to do things for me sometimes. They brought you here, haven’t they? Wouldn’t have wanted you to see any of this by getting dragged inside but what can you do.”

Dwalin let out a laugh.

“You expect me to believe that these birds brought me in here with some sort of magic?”

Nori didn’t laugh with him, but there was mischief sparkling in his eyes.

“Do you _doubt_ it?”

Dwalin looked at Nori for a few moments, taking in the strange silver glow about him. As ridiculous as he knew this to be, somehow he believed it anyway. There was something off about this cavern, about the magpies, and even Nori himself. Something unnatural, though Dwalin wasn’t versed enough in these matters to figure out whether it was the malicious kind or merely the kind that escaped a regular Dwarf’s grasp. Perhaps Óin might know what to make of this, but not Dwalin.

“Why did you want me here?”

“Respect towards you?”

Again Dwalin laughed, and Nori grinned.

“I mean it. You’re so good at catching me, and even when you’re angry you still behave like you ought to with somebody committing such petty little crimes like me. If it were anyone but _me_ you’d be much more successful in capturing me. Of course, if I weren’t me I wouldn’t be committing that many either.”

“What are you saying?” Dwalin asked, not understanding where Nori was going with this.

Nori wrapped the shawl tighter around his shoulders, and Dwalin noticed how it resembled a bird’s wings in its cut.

“I like you,” Nori said, his gaze flicking down a little, unusually shy. “It’s nearly unfair that I have such an advantage over a Dwarfish guard when he’s trying so hard and is so good at what he does with regular Dwarfish criminals. And I thought, perhaps it’d be more fun to just give in and maybe be nicer to you, and instead of being unfair I could even help you a little, here and there. It’s nothing to me after all, you won’t catch me no matter whether I go on as before or offer my help.”

Dwalin listened, watching Nori to try and find some clue in his words. His eyes moved over Nori’s scrawny form, his hair that seemed like flame in the light, the sharp lines of his face and handsome features. The silver glow seemed to come from inside him, pour out from his skin, emphasizing everything good about him and hiding anything imperfect, though there wasn’t much needed of the latter.

Suddenly it hit Dwalin, the answer both so easy it seemed impossible for how slow he’d been to come by it, and so outlandish he would never live down how much of a gullible fool he was should he utter it.

“You’re an Ainur.”

The words slipped out of Dwalin’s mouth before he could stop them, but Nori didn’t taunt him with the silliness of the conclusion. He merely nodded with a roll of his shoulder that looked like a half-aborted shrug.

“I suppose that’s what I am.”

“Then you’re not a Dwarf,” Dwalin said, and the strange heavy feeling in his heart at the realization surprised him. Of course he stood no chance as a guard trying to apprehend a being so above him in its nature. And the thought of Nori being so high above a mortal like him felt upsetting in ways Dwalin didn’t expect. He was probably nothing at all in the eyes of a being like that.

As soon as he said that a strange pained expression flickered over Nori’s features and the glow about him became cooler for a moment.

“I _am_ a Dwarf. I was _born_ , my Dwarf mother was my actual bearer,” Nori said, the pain of being a bastard with his siblings having a different sire as him clear in his voice. Like he had been made too aware of that for all his life, and Dwalin wanted to comfort and reassure him that it meant nothing at all and had no impact on who he was.

“But my sire… well, my Ma doesn’t talk much about him, but he was a Maiar I suppose. It wasn’t any different than a romance lasting as long as a caravan does, apart from him not being one of my Ma’s people. Makes me a Maiar was well maybe? Or a halfbreed Maiar. Who knows how that’s handled,” Nori proceeded, his eyes turning back to Dwalin. “Makes me a halfbreed Dwarf though.”

“No Dwarf is a halfbreed,” Dwalin said forcefully, putting all of his conviction into the words. “Anyone born by a Dwarf is a Dwarf, anyone who says they’re sired by a Dwarf is a Dwarf as well. You’re no less of a Dwarf than I am, you’re just-“ here Dwalin gestured at the magpies a bit lamely, his voice less firm now as he tried to figure out what to say about that aspect of Nori’s heritage without insulting him or negating the words he knew to be true “- you just have _that_ as well.”

Nori smiled at that, the glow about him expanding a little. He shifted, and for a second Dwalin thought that Nori half fell half floated to the ground, before he stopped to kneel before Dwalin quicker than ought to have been possible.

“You’re taking my being a mischievous half-immortal jerk by birth quite well,” Nori teased, and the birds around them chirped in a way that sounded like laughter.

Dwalin reached out to touch Nori’s hands, fingers brushing over warm skin and the silk of the shawl falling over Nori’s arms. For a moment he thought Nori might dissolve under his hands, but he didn’t. He was just as solid as he’d always been, a real Dwarf who just happened to be bathed in a strange light.

“You’re no different from before,” Dwalin said. “Only difference is I now have an excuse for being so shit at keeping you.”

Nori laughed, his voice mingling with the birds’ in a way that should be off-putting but sounded charming coming from his lips.

“Oh, you’re better at that than you think.”

**Author's Note:**

> This goes with my art for Nwalin Week Day One. The prompt I went with was "birds of a feather" and I kind of took it a bit more literal than necessary but I can't resist Nori with magpies :')
> 
> For those who don't know, and Ainur is what you would call the 'gods' in Tolkien's universe. Valar are the most powerful and the ones who created the world, Maiar are lesser versions but still powerful and a little like gods.  
> Nori's powers basically make him a lesser god of mischief, thievery, and magpies too.
> 
> The art for that is here:  
> http://asparklethatisblue.tumblr.com/post/160964369253


End file.
